Starting a gardnering business is stressful, Any advice please?

[fordfannath]

hello i am currently in the start up process and i am unsure of a few things, if people could give any feedback that will be great.

• what should i charge? i have 4 years experience in gardening and landscaping i am insured.

-How do i target my audience? - door to door, leafleting, radio, local paper. which is the most effective?

• What would you expect from your gardener?

Any comment would be appreciated.

Dh looked into going SE and so far hasn't bothered due to the stuff you've mentioned!

Will watch out for any tips though

Whereabouts are you based as this would affect how much you can expect to charge?

Our gardener (in the north east) charges £15/hour. I saw his advert in a local magazine. He's reliable, and I can text him when the garden needs some attention.

I've heard talk of a waste carriers certificate too but our gardener just fills up our brown bin.

I can only give you my perspective as a customer...

I don't listen much to the radio nor read the local papers, so that would not work for me.

I found my gardener through a free local brochure of local workmen/ companies offering a variety of services I also often get cards or leaflets through the letterbox and I do keep some of workmen when I think I might need them.

You may want to specifically target houses whose gardens look a bit frazzled. What would probably work best for you is to get a few clients on the same street.

I employ a gardener because I do not have a garage, nor a shed, so I cannot easily store a lawn-mower. In addition, he prunes conifers, other bushes, etc. He also hoes my borders, but does not do weeding of the borders.

He does not really 'care' for my lawn (no feed and weed, and no raking even though I had put some moss-killer). I would have appreciated it if I had done it... He is a lovely guy though, so I don't really mind.

I also like pottering in the garden so I will be buying plants, moving them, etc... Does this help?

I live in the NW of England.

My garden is fairly small and it probably takes him about 30-40 minutes to do it. I give him £14 every fortnight. He probably does well out of me but as I said before, he is a lovely guy so I have upped the amount I give him every year.

(I also use to pay £18 to another guy 5 years ago and it only took him 10 minutes only to do the garden. I probably would have kept him but after telling me one late October that he would come and cut my conifers and not turning up until March, I had given up on him and replaced him with my new guy!)

By the way, my gardener only works on his individual clients from April to late October, which suits me fine. He does other type of work during the winter months. I don't know how that would work for you.

I live in the southeast and work as a carer, a lot of the people I go to have gardeners. One told me she pays £10 an hour and he treats her grass, mows it and must tend to the plants too as she is housebound and her garden looks fabulous. I would think of ways of advertising to older people which the internet or such wouldn't do, although setting up a fb page might help for younger clientele. I would say leaflets through doors and advertising in a local free advert book thing like a poster above mentioned might be a good start.

Make yourself a free website.
My childminding one is done through Yola.
I paid for a domain name - £7.99 for the year.
Register with google places and link your website to it.
Register with Thompson directory etc.
I have had lots of phone calls.

My friends run a gardening business.

They have advertised by putting up a card on the pinboard in our local shop and by word of mouth. It has more or less grown way bigger than they anticipated. It started out as one friend and is now 4 ladies gardening.

They do whatever the client wants really but don't do hard landscaping (eg patios). They mow, weed, dig, clear, buy plants, pruning, plant plants, simple garden designing etc.

To begin with they undercharged (£10 per hour per person) but now charge much more. When they realised the size of their market they realised they could charge more.

A friend of mine runs a garden business and along with private clients he also targets care homes, hotels and other small busineses in the same vein. He has a website but now most of his new business comes via word of mouth. His day rate is £100 per day and we are in the south.

Also, make it clear what you can and can't offer - will you design and replant or only maintain what's there already, etc? If you have RHS or other qualifications, mention them.

Make contact with local gardening clubs and garden centres, as they are often asked for recommendations.

I would set up information about yourself on the internet. I am retired and have recently needed lots of work done at home needing many different trades.
I would never trust a leaflet drop or local advert.

Each of the tradesman we had was brilliant, so for your website you need, in order of importance

A landline telephone number and home address

Information about yourself and your business

An offer for a no obligation quote.

What most people are looking for is an honest and friendly person who is local and traceable.
Although we have a limited budget we did not go for the lowest price quote.
Once you have got the business be very realistic about how long before you can start and how long the job will take.

Stick to dates promised, if something comes up and you can't do the dates keep the customer informed.

We had to wait 8 months for our decorator, 4 months before he could start he emailed to ask if we were still happy to wait for him. 2months before he made a return visit to check if any requirements had changed and one month before he confirmed the exact date.

He charged us £5000 for hall, living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom and toilet. Quite a bit more that any one else, but we were delighted with him because he did so much preparation work, before papering and painting, which I don't believe others would have done.

I think it is important to discuss with customers exactly what you are charging for and what is involved, this way they can see what they are paying for.

Good luck with your business, please post again to let us know how you are getting on, or if you have any more questions.

Love

P.s are you anywhere near Hornchurch in Essex